Formal Film Study: Wes Anderson

 Over the summer, I went last minute to Moonrise Kingdom, not knowing anything about the film, or who directed it.  I walked out of the theatre my mind was blown, Moonrise Kingdom was one of the most unique and enjoyable movies I had ever seen. Its blend of quirky humor and bizarre story almost had me clapping at the end of the movie (something I have frowned upon in the past).  At the time I planned on researching more to find out who directed/wrote it, but I had forgotten about doing this research.  Later finding out it was directed by Wes Anderson, I was curious to see more of his movies, but never ended up watching any.  When we were told we could pick a director for this formal film study, I knew I was going to choose Anderson immediately, and I really glad I did.

Over the course of two weeks I watched three Anderson films: The Royal Tennenbuams, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and Rushmore.  Similar to Moonrise Kingdom I enjoyed all three of the films giving them rankings of 8.8/10, 9.2/10 and 8.6/10 respectfully.  Besides the enjoyable peculiarity of all three of the films, the most common theme of Wes Anderson films, they were all very similar despite very different plots.

In all three movies Wes Anderson hardly uses and bright, vidid colors.  He tends to use darker tones in his movies and uses lots of dim lighting, however there is still a plethora of colors, most of them are toned back by the lighting.  An interesting color scheme I noticed in his  and each of the movies had a yellow tint to them as seen here in The Royal Tennenbuams, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and Rushmore in that order.

I noticed two particular camera shots that Wes Anderson used frequently throughout these movies.  One of these is a birds-eye view shot.  Seen when Ritchie Tennenbaum's wrists are cut amonst his recently shaven hair, to Mr. Fox grabbing the morning paper in front of his tree, Anderson definitly enjoys the birds eye view shot.  Kim Morgan a film critic was analyzing all of Wes Anderson's films before the release of Moonrise Kingdom, and writes "Anderson adores this shot with an almost fervid fetishization tantamount to Hitchcock's love of blonds." This rest of the summary can be seen here, and if truly interested in Anderson's work, Morgan does a much better job than I could have ever have written on Anderson's films.  I feel the birds eye view shot focuses the viewer onto the object in even a better way a close up of the object can since it's hardly used by other directors.  The other shot that Wes Anderson uses often is a dead center, shoulders and up shot of the characters face.  This allows viewers to focus on the character's emotions, and sometimes to add humor to the scene such as in the opossums face in Fantastic Mr. Fox.  Seen here are the latter shot:  

Of all the similarities between the three Wes Anderson films I watched the biggest one is the theme of dysfunctional relationships.  The most obvious case of this is seen in The Royal Tennenbuams, which is pretty much all about an outed father trying to come back into the lives of his grown-up child protégées, and his soon to be remarried ex-wife. While the other two movies are good examples of messed up relationships,  The Royal Tennenbuams is the pinnicale of it. One brother is jealous of the other, the one son hates his dad, brothers loving (adopted) sisters, this movie hilarity and occasaional sadness derive from the twisted relationships that is infused in the Tennenbuam family.  In the movie, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Mr. Fox and Mrs. Fox get caught stealing fowl at the beginning of the movie and promises if they escape, he will never steal again.  After ten years go by, Mr. Fox wild animal instincts take priority over the old promise and he begins to steal again.  When Mrs. Fox finds out  Mr. Fox and Mrs. Fox relationship turns shaky.  Another poor relationship seen in Fantastic Mr. Fox is Mr. Fox's son with the same aged out of town cousin.  The son has to fight for Mr. Fox's attention who has giving it all to the impressive cousin.  In Rushmore dysfunctional relationships are seen throughout the movie.  Max Fiscer, the incredibly pro-active and mature fifteen year old is in love with a first grade teacher at the same school and is constantly fighting with/for her throughout the movie.  Also Max Fiscer is embarrassed and lies about his fathers occupation of being a barber, at his prestigious boarding school.  These relationships are infused and often become the plot of Anderson's movies.  Anderson's parents divorced when Anderson was eight years old, he even said the divorce was "the most crucial event of my brothers and my growing up." (biography.com) This is evident in the stories Anderson depicts and the way he depicts them.  Like Anderson growing up to be a star director, all three of these movies ended happy and the relationship problems in the past.

Overall, I love the quirkiness of Wes Anderson's films and the humor that comes with it.  I look foward to seeing his new movie coming out this year Grand Budapest Hotel, and many more movies from him in the future (not Star Wars he turned that down).